This racing weekend is a great challenge for the crew around team manager Stephan Sohn: SPS automotive performance is attending two European races … a challenge for both, logistics & manpower.
At Autodromo Enzo Ferrari the first private tests are scheduled already for Thursday afternoon, Friday morning starts with free practice at 09:45 resulting in a first success: fastest vehicle on the track. In the immediately following qualifying at 11:30, Richard Feller wins a promising P2 in the class for # 24 – P10 Overall. The AMG GT3 with number 24 will start from row 5 on the grid …
At 15:00 it gets really serious: Gentlemen, start your engines! In the SPS automotive performance AMG GT3, Iradj Alexander starts with a double stint and gets to P1 in class. Driver change with Richard Feller overtaking the steering wheel, ranking after another 2 hours for car #24: P3 in the class and overall. At 7:00 pm the SPS AMG GT3 crosses the finish line under the chequered flag and ends part 1 of the 12h of Imola: it is P2 we leave the car in the Parc Fermé – or differently: P4 overall and thus it is row 2 in the starting grid the SPS bolide will start from for part 2 on Saturday!
The start of the 5th round of the 24h series originally planned for 11:00 is delayed by 45 minutes – not quite helping to relax from mental tension. Iradj Alexander – at 11:00 again first in the cockpit – defends P2 with a strong performance and hands over a perfectly set up vehicle and the steering wheel to Alexander Coigny.
The next hours go smooth, the SPS race car runs like a clockwork and drivers & team are on a top level. But – two hours before the end of this 12h race: accident and out for #24 – the car gets covered and parked into the box. No chance to continue … and no further comment so far.
Because as always: after the race is before the race! And it will take quite a while – C U in November on the circuit of the Americas, USA!
…
Approximately 1000 km away on the Hungaroring in Budapest the fourth round of the International GT Open starts on Friday with 3 free practice sessions during which the driver duo Valentin Pierburg and Lance David Arnold thoroughly tests the SPS AMG GT3 # 20 and together with the team they succeed in setting up the car perfectly.
The result is amazing: at the end of an excellent qualifying on the next day at 10:50, Lance David Arnold places the #20 on P1 in class and P2 overall with only 189 thousandth of a second (!) behind the pole of the PRO class … for SPS team this means: start from row 1 at 16:15!
The first half Lance D. Arnold pushes mercilessly and defends P2 overall and P1 in class. Then pit stop – refueling, wheel- and driver-change – everything runs perfectly. Valentin Pierburg has a knife between his teeth and sovereignly pushes over the second distance. 15 minutes to go till end of the race, all of a sudden an unaffected touching with a rival – thank goodness without consequences – afterwards perfect till the checkered flag goes down: twice podium with champagne shower: for P1 in class and for P2 in the overall ranking.
A great first race day and reason enough to celebrate for the team. But not too much … because on Sunday the Qualifying for the 2nd race ate 14:15 is scheduled already for 09:10.
Valentin Pierburg is the one to start the qualifying 2 on Sunday morning and fixes P15 overall and P7 in class. In other words: the SPS AMG GT3 is going to start from row 8 in race 2 at 14:15.
It is up to Valentin Pierburg to do the Qualifying 2 on Sunday early morning which results in a P15 Overall and respectively P7 in our own class. This means: at 14:15 the SPS AMG GT3 will start from row 8 on the grid.
It is far from easy to gain positions having lost some at the start – but car by car Pierburg goes forward and reaches P12. Contact with a rival car – thanks god luckily without any damage but with a loss of precious positions. After a driver’s change with Lance David Arnold who finishes the race car #24 passes the chequered flag on P6 in class.
The next round of this series will be the circuit in Silverstone.
All Motorsport friends can follow the races and SPS automotive performance on various online channels:
http://instagram.com/sps_performance